บท 3: A NOVEL WORLD?

It was a novel she read half-heartedly. The novel was about a girl who had the same first name as her, Aristia Amberale, the daughter of a Duke, Grand Duke actually, and who was pampered a lot by her family.

The novel started when the main character was seven years old, mainly due to a major event.

[Dear Aristia just happens to be the female lead.] Aristia rolled her eyes.

It wasn't like she was against the female lead role or anything, it was just that this female lead was too...weak.

[Weak? Weak is an understatement. She was too delicate and fragile. Even more than those porcelain dolls. I mean, falling on her butt and not being able to sit for a few minutes when she was four? Unbelievable, I know. I thought so too. Who knows? Maybe I'm being too hard on a child, but if this isn't called fragile, then I don't know what is.] She scoffed in disdain in front of the mirror and continued to stare at the beautiful face looking back at her.

She got the confirmation she needed regarding the girl's fragility by looking in the mirror at the eyes that turned watery when she blinked and the lips that turned red when she bit them.

[But even so, I can't deny the fact that she's so cute. This is a blessed face.] She cupped her cheeks while blinking cutely. She squeezed the soft face and kneaded it like a dough. It was addicting.

Although the novel started when Aristia was seven years old, there was still a little mention about her childhood that emphasized her cuteness and fragility. One of those such moments was the one she mentioned earlier.

[The novel was called "The Heroine's Success." Lame title, I know. Literally explains the whole plot, though the plot had nothing to offer.] She rolled her eyes at the thought of the title explaining the plot.

Aristia, as the heroine, was loved wherever she went by whomever she met.

[That was an overstatement just for the sake of proving how loved and pampered she was.] Aristia rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day at the thought that nobody could ever be loved by everyone.

[You'd have fans or lovers and anti-fans or haters too. There's also those who felt nothing; the neutral. That's just the way of the world. Even I had haters even though I did nothing really wrong, but I don't care anyway, since they're not people I care about.] She shrugged, even though she knew her cold, devilmaycare attitude was pat of the reason she had haters.

[Back to the plot... According to my assessment and deductions, the villainess Alicia wasn't evil at all. She was just termed villainess because of a misunderstanding between she and Aristia, and since Aristia felt she was trying to make fun of her and embarrass her.]

Since the novel was in Aristia's point of view and Alicia didn't know how to express herself properly, her actions and words didn't come out the way she wanted and caused Aristia and the people close to her to misunderstand her.

[Pitiful little girl. She was just like those people who didn't have I'll intentions and actually meant no harm when they spoke but didn't know how to express themselves clearly and thus, their words come out the wrong way.]

She wasn't really sure though as she had doubts about the villain and even the female lead as in the novels her houseworkers usually talked about, after entering the novel world, the protagonist would notice that the original female lead actually wasn't the kind person she was portrayed to be and that the villain could actually be innocent.] She shook her head.

[Nothing dire happened to her though which was also part of the reason I didn't drop the novel halfway through. She wasn't talked about anymore since Aristia avoided her throughout the novel till the end. But I feel like the author just didn't want Aristia to experience hardship, which is why he/she just tagged any character as Villainess. The author must have a serious case of 'My-character-must-be-invincible-and-well-liked' Syndrome.]

She rolled her eyes even more when she thought of the novel's abrupt end. She didn't know the gender of the author as there was no information about the author, not even a name, only the novel plot.

"There was a lot of events in the book but Aristia, the heroine, barely played any role in the book. Strange. It was like her role was a blank spot left for someone else to fill up. The whole plot was confusing and I could have dropped it had I not remembered mum's insistence. Now that I think about it, why was she so desperate?" Her brows knitted.

"Aristia didn't even play any major role in the novel, just being pampered by her family— no kind of contribution. Maybe that was her 'success'. Such a poorly written novel. And what was up with the end? It just stated the words 'So Aristia was loved by all and sundry. She was successful'. The end." She sneered disdainfully and decided to stop thinking about the senseless and intangible novel.

What she didn't expect was that when she woke up the next morning, she would become the female lead in the novel.

"Calm down Ari. It's probably not what you think. You're better than this. There's probably some logical explanation for this." She tried to comfort herself.

"Sh*t! Who am I kidding, what kind of logical explanation could there be for this?! Don't tell me I seriously got into a story I just read the night before? That's just crazy and unrealistic! Damn, I knew I shouldn't have read it." She punched the nice pillow she had been holding in her hand for some reason, feeling frustrated. She rarely cursed and this situation had caused her to curse more than once in the span of an hour.

"I don't even read novels and the one novel I read, this happens?! You see, this is why I don't read novels." She buried her face in the pillow her voice coming out muffled. "I'm more of a movies and anime person."

Aristia didn't know what to feel. She was still in disbelief. She calmed down, her chest still heaving as she proceeded to pinch herself again.

"Ouch."

"I really shouldn't pinch myself again. Gosh! Even a little pinch is painful." Aristia sighed softly.

"Alright, at least I got the Premium Knowledge— the plot information, even though it's a jumbled up mess— so I can still come off as the couple's daughter while adding strips of my personality because I cannot stick to her character. This is unfamiliar territory. I don't want to come off as suspicious." She was referring to Aristia's parents.

Her trail of thoughts still revolved around the novel. [Worse still, I didn't wake up in any ordinary modern novel world but in the medieval era or should I say the ancient times of ball gowns, commoners, stuck-up nobles and the likes. That explains this room's decor. That means I wasn't kidnapped and the family in the portrait is book Aristia's family.] She snickered excitedly.

Her ability to adapt to unexpected situations was astounding. She had good resilience. It was just that...

[I miss my family.] She sighed. [But I'm sure they'll be fine for today. I'll probably be back in my world tomorrow or wake up soon if this really is just a crazy dream. It better be.] She shrugged, but she knew that her overprotective family would panic even if she was just gone for two hours without knowing where she went.

She looked at the time shown on the old grandfather clock on the wall again and sighed.

"It's been an hour since I woke up." She couldn't believe this all took only an hour, also the fact that she'd been standing in front of the mirror lost in thought for a whole hour. It looked like today was one of those longer days and shorter nights.

Just as she was contemplating on what to do, she heard a faint sound of footsteps outside of the room.